Early Modern Women on Metaphysics, Religion and Science
Conference on 21-23 March 2016, University of Groningen

During the early modern period (c. 1600-1800) women were involved in many debates that tangled together metaphysics, religion and science. The women included figures such as Margaret Cavendish, Emilie Du Châtelet, Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, and Damaris Cudworth Masham. The debates surrounded issues such as atomism, determinism, motion, mind-body causation, mechanism, space, and natural laws.

The last twenty years have seen an increasing interest in women philosophers that have been neglected by the history of their discipline. A substantial body of work now exists on early modern women philosophers, much of it concerning ethics and political philosophy. This conference will focus on metaphysics, religion and science, and in doing so provide a fresh perspective from which to view the work of early modern women, throwing light on areas that are relatively underexplored.

The conference will be held from 21-23 March 2016, at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen. The program will be comprised of both invited speakers and speakers drawn from an open call for papers; please see below for details. Subject to peer review, conference papers will be published as part of a collection.
Confirmed Invited Speakers

Submissions are invited from any discipline, and from researchers of all levels (including PhD students). Submissions are welcome on any aspect of the conference theme. To illustrate, submissions may deal with early modern women in relation to metaphysics or religion or science; or in relation to all three areas.

To submit for the conference, please email an abstract – maximum 800 words – to Emily Thomas [a.e.e.thomas@rug.nl]. The abstract should be anonymised for blind review, and the email should contain the author’s details (name, position, affiliation, contact details). The deadline for abstract submission is 20th October 2015.